Lauri Kallion yhtye (FI)

Lauri Kallio (b. 1989), who grew up in Tampere, is a jack-of-all-trades music professional, whose work can be found on some forty releases: as a recording engineer, mixer and producer, a composer and arranger as well as, of course, a musician and, above all, a guitarist. However, Kallio is so far unknown as a performer of his own music – unless one includes Pambikallio, which was an indie favourite from a couple years back that specialised in a melodic, Finnish-speaking brand of psychedelic pop. Lauri Kallio was the ‘kallio’ of the two performers, while ‘Pambi’ was the singer, songwriter and violinist Pauliina Koivusaari.

Koivusaari also plays the violin on Kallio’s second album Turtles, Cats and Other Creatures (2025), which borrows from the sound of Pambikallio, with its fresh, retro pop take. Otherwise, the genres defy definition just when you think you’ve got a handle on them: it is all at once jazz, pop, soul and funk instrumental music. Not to mention the kind of cinematic lounge music of yesteryear, which one might listen to in the lobby of a southern luxury hotel while sunk deep into a low-slung, velvet sofa.

A maximum of eight musicians strive to set this tone on Kallio’s album Turtles, Cats and Other Creatures, but a smaller ensemble of professionals will be performing at the final Sunday evening concert of the Tampere Jazz Happening. And, there are no sofas at Telakka anyway.